"WE ARE THE BOYS" (Who Make All the Noise)" is a medley of early rock 'n' roll classics like "Great Balls 'o' Fire" and "Chantilly Lace," as recorded in this one-off project from Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy), Roy Wood (The Move), Chas Hodges (Chas 'n' Dave), and John Coghan (Status Quo).

JAMES BROWN: The six adult children of singer James Brown and his partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, have agreed on where the Godfather of Soul will be buried -- which is an undisclosed location, so maybe he will be guarded by VP Dick Cheney. Brown's former manager reveals he keeps opening the golden casket to make sure Brown is still there; all needs now is to istall a refrigerator light.

IRAN publicly hanged a man who confessed to involvement in last week's deadly bomb attack on members of the Revolutionary Guards in the tense border city of Zahedan. Compare the near-total lack of ourage about this to the media barrage of complaints over the hanging of Saddam Hussein after a lengthy trial. Apparently, we are unwilling to judge the Iranian government -- which has been around since 1979 -- by the same standards we apply to a fledgling democracy.

HOODOO GURUS frontman Dave Faulkner talks to Harp magazine about his long-running scheme to bring back "the dumbness of rock" in a nifty history of the band; he even explains who "I Want You Back" is really about.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO: The Windy City is coming out of the deep freeze for a moment, so I want to wallow in the guilty pleasure that is "Beach Baby" by First Class. It's the single version that fades out before the wonderful french horn-and-a cappella vox-driven bridge, but still a tast stick of gum.

THE TOP 100 INDIE SONGS of ALL TIME, according to music blog HearYa. And by "all time," they apparently mean "since 1980," with more than half since 2000. So there are glaring omissions, only some of which are noted in the comments there. For example, the list misses the entire output of Stiff Records and 2-Tone Records, let alone Sun Records. And if I really wanted to get picky, I could drag out stuff like the early dB's albums on Albion, REM's "Radio Free Europe" self-released on Hib-Tone, etc. That being said, the list is not a bad indie collection... and for yupsters wanting to catch up with the post-Nirvana indie world, it could be pretty useful.

BRITNEY SPEARS has checked into an undisclosed L.A.-area in-patient rehab facility, after intervention by family members. Not a moment too soon, but better late than never. The pop tart's rep issued the obligatory statement urging everyone to respect Britney's privacy, to the extent someone who went around exposing her privates in public has any.

THE OSCARS: Gold Derby blogger Tom O'Neil suggests that the American Cinema Editors award shows that Babel is the main competition to The Departed. He also notes that Pete Hammond of Maxim and HollywoodWiretap.com has switched his best-pic prediction from Little Miss Sunshine to Babel. I note that at Intrade, the betting still favors The Departed by a rather wide margin.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON has topped Playboy's annual 25 Sexiest Celebrities list: "Scarlett Johansson is the apex of beauty and sensuality -- from her porcelain skin to her fully feminine figure to her mysterious charisma, which is at once palpable and indefinable." London's Sun has galleries of Scarlett and her competition at the link. You can see her chemistry with Justin Timberlake in the video for "What Goes Around...Comes Around."

NEW RELEASES: It seems that folks took the Presidents Day holiday to slack on posting good links for new releases. There may be better links tomorrow, but for now the ones that leap out at me are: The Black Lips'Los Valentes Del Mundo Nuevo, which is Nuggets-y goodness recorded live in Tijuana; Elvis Perkins finally releasing Ash Wednesday; and Explosions in the Sky's more epic indie rock on All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone. EitS is also scheduled to visit Conan O'Brien tonight. Plus, Southern Culture on the Skids is streaming their new Countrypolitan Favorites from their website, including covers of "Muswell Hillbilly" (Kinks), "Have You Seen Her Face?" (Byrds) and "Happy Jack" (Who).

ARCADE FIRE visited New York's Judson Memorial Church for a full concert on Feb. 17, 2007, which you can stream from NPR now.

IRAN may be able to enrich uranium on a mass scale in just six months, but it could still be 10 years away from the capacity to build a nuclear bomb, the chief UN monitor said. He said that, according to US and British intelligence estimates, Iran was still five to 10 years away from building a nuclear bomb, and warned against "hype" over Tehran's nuclear progress. Fair enough, though I think we've seen that US and UK intell doesn't always get it right, either.

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The supposedly sober supermodel must take a drugs test if she wants to go to the US, because of her well-publicised cocaine scandal. The troubled singer will be glad to note that Moss has started wearing a ring o­n her wedding finger again.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Ghost Rider, which ultimately scored 23 percent o­n the Tomatometer, took the top spot at the cineplex, with a 44 million take -- double that of second-place Bridge to Terabithia. Lat weekend's top pic Norbit slid 50 percent to third, but is an all-but-certain moneymaker. New releases Music and Lyrics, Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls, and Breach followed with 14, 12 and ten million, respectively. Last weekend's second, third, fourth and ffith-place pics -- Hannibal Rising, Because I Said So, The Messengers and Night at the Museum -- round out the Top Ten. This weekend breaks a six-week streak of lower total receipts in year-over-year stats.

THE OSCARS: With less than a week to go, Oscar oddsmakers from the Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly have the Best Picture race in a virtual dead heat, with The Departed edging out Little Miss Sunshine. At Movie City News, the Gurus o' Gold have it the other way around! FWIW, I think that sympathy for Scorsese and the general Oscar bias against comedies give the edge to The Departed.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON wore some Woody Allen glasses to become the youngest-ever recipient of Harvard's Hasty Pudding award. But she abandoned intellectual for funny by claiming that her dream date is Patrick Swayze.

ANNA NICOLE SMITH IS STILL DEAD. And now she's embalmed, too. Not that she hadn't seemed embalmed many times before.

FEIST: Gorilla vs. Bear and other blogs have been posting "My Moon, My Man," the piano-driven first single from Leslie Feist's next album, The Reminder, due May 1st in the US. You can also stream it o­n the ol' HM.

ELENI MANDELL was embarrassed to join MySpace "because that means you're admitting that you want attention and you want friends. I was like, 'Who would dare admit such a thing!?' But now I get it. It's wonderful to admit that you're needy and desperate." You can stream four from Miracle of Five at HerSpace... and ask to be her friend, won't you?

CHEETAHS mauled Karen Aerts to death at the Antwerp Zoo, after she entered their cage for no apparent reason. Olmense Zoo spokesman Jan Libot said "Karen loved animals. Unfortunately the cheetahs betrayed her trust," apparently unaware that cheetahs are wild beasts isolated from the humans for a reason.